Archive: A Separation (2011)

In A Separation, an Iranian drama, a married couple faces a complex decision – to move to another country and improve the life of their child, or to stay in Iran and care for an aging parent with Alzheimer’s disease.

The film industry’s battle with censorship began following the 1979 Islāmic Revolution, when strict censorship laws were enacted that forbade films to depict couples touching or a woman to appear on-screen without wearing Islāmic garments that hid her hair and body shape.—Record

The [Academy] award was a moment of triumph for a people much abused by their ruling regime at home or else by threats of war and by crippling sanctions imposed on them from outside—by the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, no less, by a Barack Hussein Obama, of all people!—Hamid Dabashi, Columbia University

Despite the commercial incentive, main-body films have not gone the way of new Hollywood. Not yet. This is not because Iranian cinema lacks the technical know-how, but because the state cannot tolerate even a shallow attempt at the portrayal of social conflicts. Only the classic Hollywood/main-body style can so effectively block the political will that constantly threatens to seep from reality into films.—Houman Harouni, The Guardian